BOSTON - A Dominican national was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Worcester for his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Jose Federico Vasquez, 55, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman to five years in prison and four years of supervised release and will face deportation proceedings upon completion of his sentence. In May 2017, Federico Vasquez and four co-defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine in Worcester County.
In the late summer of 2014, federal agents began investigating the narcotics trafficking activities of Osvaldo Vasquez and his associates, Federico Vasquez, Felix Melendez, Elvis Genao, and Hugo Santana-Dones. Between November 2014 and July 2015, with the help of a cooperating witness, agents made numerous recorded purchases of heroin - sometimes laced with fentanyl - from members of the conspiracy, seizing over 400 grams of heroin as a result.
During a court-authorized wiretap, Vasquez and his co-defendants were heard discussing the purchase and sale of multiple kilograms of narcotics and demonstrated an awareness of the potential deadly consequences of the narcotics they were distributing. On May 7, 2015, Osvaldo Vasquez, Melendez, and Federico Vasquez were intercepted discussing how the high number of heroin overdose deaths occurring at the time were cutting into their sales.
In August 2015, federal agents executed a search warrant at the conspirators’ homes. At Osvaldo Vasquez’s home in Worcester, agents found 679 grams of heroin and 723 grams of cocaine, as well as a Taurus PT.380 semi-automatic handgun. The phone that was the subject of the wiretap, cutting tools, and over $7,000 in cash were also recovered in the home. At the residence of Santana-Dones in Leominster, 224 grams of heroin, 110 grams of cocaine, and 8.9 grams of cocaine base (crack cocaine), along with cutting tools, a hydraulic kilogram press, over $1,300 in cash, and two phones that had been intercepted on the wiretap were recovered. At the residence of Melendez, who was on parole for state firearm and narcotics charges at the time, 3.1 grams of cocaine, a digital scale, over $1,000 in cash, and a phone that had been intercepted on the wiretap were recovered. At the residence of Federico Vasquez in Providence, agents found 3.4 grams of cocaine.
Santana-Dones was sentenced on Sept. 6, 2017, to 80 months in prison and will be subject to deportation hearings upon completion of his sentence; Osvaldo Vasquez, Melendez, and Genao are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13, 2017, Oct. 25, 2017, and Sept. 19, 2017, respectively.
Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; Michael J. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; Colonel Richard D. McKeon, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Worcester Police Chief Steven M. Sargent; Fitchburg Police Chief Ernest F. Martineau; and Leominster Interim Police Chief Michael Goldman, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Grady of Weinreb’s Worcester Branch Office is prosecuting the cases.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
